To Mend a Broken Wing
by Mai Valentine1
Summary: A soldier in the Green Earth Army muses about a love she feels that can never be..Her love for her CO, Eagle. Finally updated.
1. Musings of War and Love

Disclaimer: I don't own Advance Wars, but I wish I did. All AW Characters used belong to Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, etc. All original characters belong to me.  
  
To Mend A Broken Wing  
An Advance Wars Fanfiction  
By  
Mai Valentine  
  
A warm summer night. It was actually peaceful. Nights like this were hard to come by, what with the constant tensions, and battles..  
  
Ah war. The strange, almost eternal dance of bloodshed and death, the wedding party of deception and honor, of hope and despair.  
  
Sometimes I wish for it all to end, for the battles to cease, for Wars World to finally achieve it's well-deserved solitude at long last.  
  
But I then think..  
  
What would I have to live for? Is there anything for me beyond this army I serve? After this long bloody masquerade, do I truly have a life to return to?  
  
These are the types of things that come to your mind when you have a moment to rest, a moment of peace.  
  
It's why I dislike it.  
  
I love the sound of battle. The percussive beat of the rifles firing, and the artillery hitting their mark. The dull hum of the tank engines, as they roll along to their goal. The sharp soprano voice of the fighters as they scream across the skies. All these sounds paint an odd, but colorful picture of the face of war.  
  
This sound is unnerving to most all who hear it.but to me, it serves a special purpose. It's why I love it.  
  
It drowns out the voices inside me. The voices that whisper of something beyond the life of a soldier that I cannot reach.  
  
The voices that expose my inner weakness.  
  
I suppose I should speak of that. That despicable, yet comforting feeling in my heart, that causes me to yearn for something I can never have.  
  
The one thing through all of this that I have hungered for, fought for, almost died for.  
  
Love.  
  
You may think, this is a common occurrence. That many fight for love. But my case if different. I want to fight to keep my mind from love. From the love I know I cannot have.  
  
I love someone who is higher than I.  
  
Yes, my heart is foolish like any young lover's, I yearn for the one who touches my soul in the one way no-one else can. But, what if this person is someone who by the laws, and standards of the world, I cannot touch, or heaven forbid, love!  
  
That is when it gets complicated..and depressing.  
  
I will introduce myself. It's been rude all this time for me not to. I'm a pilot in the Green Earth Airforce. My name is Nina Celes Kazeno. I was raised in a tiny village in southern GE named Kaze Verde, and my father was once in one of the GE infantry divisions.  
  
But enough about that.  
  
I return to the matter at hand, the matter of my heart. I've fallen for the one person in all of Green Earth that I truly can't touch. This man has given me inspiration, guidance, and a dream for the future. He led me along, and gave me my wings in which to fly into the heavens above. He stood with us throughout the last war, and into the one that is now upon us. He gave us the reason to believe, to fight on, even to die in a supposed 'glory'. The man is a god in his own right.  
  
He is my Commanding Officer.  
  
Eagle, the hard, but caring, strong but compassionate leader of the Green Earth Airforce. He is the one my heart has so foolishly fallen prey to. If only I could have fallen for someone of a lower rank! A civilian would have been even better! But no.he had to come into my life with a flourish of almost saintly convictions. molding me into the soldier that I am now, with a stern and gentle hand, and bringing my soul into maze of unrequited love from which there is no return.  
  
But is rank the only barrier?  
  
If during peacetime, I could somehow spend time with him, and be with him outside the world of CO and Soldier, of Superior and Subordinate...then maybe I'd have a chance.  
  
No way in hell.  
  
There's someone else out there who loves him as much as I.. and she's better suited. She's the same rank as he. She commands many of the lowers such as I, through the treacherous terrain of war, sometimes even ordering us to our inevitable deaths. But she can, because to her troops, she is a goddess. An unquestionable force, even if making a horrible decision that will leave many dead. She is also a Commanding Officer, who has fought alongside Eagle, on many a different occasion.  
  
The Infantry Princess of Orange Star, Sami.  
  
How can I compete with her? She's got the looks, the talents, the rank.and all know she has an enormous crush on Eagle. He may as well.. He's rushed to her aid many a time, and every time, they've ended up together in an odd, but almost romantic situation. It would be no surprise if they did end up as a couple.  
  
Where does that leave me?  
  
I know I should drop him.forget him.and return to the way I saw him when I first joined the Airforce. As a force of nature, as someone who should receive awe and adulation. Someone who is to be revered, respected, and held in high regard.  
  
Not someone to be lusted after.  
  
I always wonder if he ever noticed I loved him at all. But things like this I shouldn't consider. It will only stir up too much confusion in my mind. Too many 'What Ifs?'. It will be hard to let go of, but I guess the best course of action is the one I thought of before.  
  
Maybe this way, I can still love him, from a far.but not with the stinging dejection that I can never have him. Maybe, just maybe I can destroy this pain in my soul, and fill the hole with something other than longing sorrow.  
  
.Maybe, the war will end soon, and he will forget Sami.  
  
Another one of those thoughts, creeping in to destroy what composure I have.I was just breaking though, and finding the way to rid myself of this depression once and for all..I guess.it may be futile.  
  
*splish*  
  
A droplet of rain. I guess it clouded up while I was out here fighting myself.Out here hashing out my feelings. I guess I should go inside, lay in the barracks.face the music. Eagle is in there, somewhere, and chances are, I will run into him.  
  
Maybe.I should tell him how I feel.  
  
That was an odd thought.Would it be a good idea? Well.it would be one that would take heavy mental preparation, and a lot of guts.  
  
*splish* *splish*  
  
The rain's getting harder now.I guess I can finish fighting my heart inside. Maybe then I can decide what the hell to do. Maybe I can decide if I can give up on Eagle, or if I will continue to chase him.  
  
As I wander into the base, and come quickly upon the barrack door, one thought comes to mind..  
  
I guess I'll sleep on it.  
  
Maybe, somewhere in my dreams, an answer will unfold.  
  
A strategy on how to beat the toughest, and most shrewd of all enemies...  
  
Love. 


	2. Dreamweaver

Disclaimer: I do not own Advance Wars! (I own a cartridge of both games, though ^_^;;) All AW characters belong to their respective companies. All original characters belong to me.  
  
Authoress' note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! ^_^ I apologize profusely for the VERY long hiatus—this school year has been a complete nightmare for me, with loads of work, and many other nuisances. But, as the year winds down, the Fanfiction will become more prolific. Again, I apologize.  
  
To Mend a Broken Wing  
Chapter 2:  
Dreamweaver  
  
Dammit.  
  
Another night of restless sleep, augmented nicely with nightmares. I don't think I'll ever sleep peacefully again. But I guess that comes with the kind of life I lead. My hands are drenched in unholy blood, and my heart is drenched with unrequited tears. I'm one fucked up little girl, and this is the way that the fates bring that fact to my attention.  
  
I guess I'm getting used to it.  
  
It used to bother me much more than this. Way back at the beginning of the war. When I hadn't truly experienced battle.  
  
I'm glad there's a lull in the war for many reasons...though I regret being on the battlefield. When you sleep near the front, the sounds of battle at least drown the screams of your nightmares. For some reason, I sleep better there. Maybe it's because it's where I feel most at home. But, since the angst between the countries has died down, and Black Hole has had it's tail forcefully stuck between it's legs, and disappeared from the world stage for a short time, I have to find my home elsewhere.  
  
I've found it at a local bar here in GE. A place called the "Rusty Falcon". It's funny to be called that, and be right next to the Air Force base. Many a time I have found myself laughing at this certain point.  
  
Everyone who comes here is some sort of combat veteran. Every night I hear a myriad of cockamamie stories from different battles, some more believable than others. It's mostly old seasoned GE vets– (I don't truly think I could call myself one of these yet, I guess when I become old and senile like they are, I could finally do so) but there are some from the other countries. They are the truly interesting ones.  
  
Isis Valentine, for starters. She, a strange, and hardened girl from Orange Star, had a wonderfully rough beauty to her. She was one of Max's 'Tank Girls' (a nickname we gave his female soldiers), and her face and arms showed it. She was very well built, and her face was covered with small scratches and scars, obviously from the shell fire and other damage done to the tank while she was in it. She didn't say much, but I did find out from her once that she left Orange Star because she was fed up with the fighting, and wanted to try to find a new life. The wars were taking too much of a toll on her essence. But, that soon fell through– she began to miss the excitement and ecstasy she felt servicing and operating the "Instruments of Holy Wrath" as she put them. She now works for Jess, fixing the vehicles, and her beloved tanks.  
  
Mayumi Katsuya was another strange case, hailing from Yellow Comet. She had seen some of the worst parts of the war, and hadn't even participated in one battle. She was a medic, working at one of the emergency aid outposts near the YC battlefields. She'd tell us the stories– people coming in with something as small as a fractured finger or hand, to something as grandiose as a leg that had been blown almost completely off by artillery, and was just hanging on by a scant few sinews. She'd watched people fight for their lives and make it, and also fail. It was always a sad sight, when there was nothing they could do, except let a patient slowly drift into the arms of God. She was relieved, though, that they could at least lessen the pain somewhat with drugs. That way, even though they were dying, it would be a little less difficult on them. Her face was care-worn, and marked with a thousand sorrows for those she saw die. I could tell she was getting accustomed to it, but I could also tell there was something in her that could never adjust to seeing a human life be extinguished in such a tragic way. She'd often sit in the corner, staring off into space, a stray tear sometimes escaping down her face. Everyone just assumed she was having a flashback. I believed there may be something more, but I didn't want to ask her. She seemed to already have enough troubles as it was. There were a million things I wanted to ask her; like why she was in the wars in the first place, and how she eventually ended here in GE. Someday, I will ask her these things, but for now, I'll just sit in quiet awe of this woman, whom after everything she's witnessed, still has a compassionate soul.  
  
It's more than I have.  
  
Lastly, was a couple that always brought strange stares. Madoushi and Saturos Tanjiri, two fugitives of Black Hole. They'd escaped to Green Earth to evade Sturm's horrid regime. Both seemed to also be of Comet descent, but had always lived on Black Hole isle. They fit each other well. Madoushi, pale and willowy, with most of her body framed by a river of black hair that gushed forth from her scalp, swarthy and mysterious. But the most memorable thing about her, was her eyes. They were a startling blue, which heavily contrasted her snowy complexion, and almost anorexic form. Her eyes seemed to have the strength that the rest of her body heavily lacked. She looked as if something was sapping the very life from every part of her, except her eyes. She spoke with a quiet eloquence, that held, intriguingly a spark of hope, that was smothered by well-cultivated timidity. She was no stranger to the darkness the world held– She had walked within it daily.  
  
Saturos, her counterpart, looked much like Madoushi, in physical form and stature, except for the obvious. He was slender, and pale, with a beautiful silken mane of dark blue, coming down to his shoulders. His eyes were also strikingly bright, again shimmering with the strength his body didn't possess. He was going to be "drafted" into the Black Hole Armed Forces for the knowledge and skill he exhibited with different firearms. Mainly, Sturm just wanted his expertise, and was going to exploit it in any way he could, even if he just had to kill Saturos, and harvest his blood to make more of those deplorable clones, like he did with the Orange Star CO, Andy.  
  
But, miraculously, he caught wind of this horrid endeavor (though we don't know how, and haven't asked) and alerted Madoushi, after which the two of them made a harrowing escape to the mainland of Green Earth. Again, this was by some God-given providence; a very lucky slip past the martial law that is in-place everywhere in Black Hole, finally reaching the coast, and finding an abandoned Black Hole boat that had somehow survived the naval assaults—THEN getting it actually to Green Earth without getting killed. It was a feat we all were in awe at, though none of us truly had the balls to say much of anything to the couple from the abhorred country, save the mundane pleasantries every person spouts. They don't seem to care; they hold themselves with a dignity that seems interminable. It's the kind of dignity that everyone wishes to have, but not many truly achieve. I guess you have to experience almost biblical hardships to attain it. These two surely had.  
  
In the midst of this motley crew of characters, I find myself feeling right at home. Here, I never worry about any of the crap I worry about on the base. No-one here cares about my appearance, my tone..my words....  
  
...my hidden emotions...  
  
I let all be seen here. I'm sure some of them know that I'm in love with someone...someone whom, due to great barriers, I can never hope to have..and yet, due to some unspoken law of respect, they never once have asked me about it.  
  
I wish some of my 'contemporaries' on the base would pick up on this idea....  
  
All in all, I love this place. It's comfortable, almost careless attitude brings a strange solace to one like me. This is the one haven I have away from the base, the one place I can drop the facade I habitually wear while I'm anywhere on military property.  
  
Or at least I thought I could....  
  
This night was different than all the others...It had began normally, with all of the usual crowd filing in at intervals, getting a drink, and settling down. I had been in the middle of a talk with Isis, when the door creaked open, and everyone habitually turned their eyes up at the newcomer.  
  
I didn't bother to turn my head, until Isis' eyes went wide. She nudged me, and I then turned toward the door. My face blanched at what I saw, and my eyes, like everyone else's, widened pretty far. But, unlike everyone else, a net of poisonous butterflies released themselves inside my stomach, at the very image that walked through the door.  
  
Someone I never thought would ever come here, was standing there. Someone, though I respect, I also fear. Him.  
  
Eagle.  
  
*********  
  
Thank you for reading, and again, sorry for the horrendously long time it took to update. I will be turning these out more often now, due to the fact of Summer Vacation. Thanks everyone.  
  
-Mai- 


End file.
